Current Research Projects |
- Long Term Sustainability of Dairy Second Pond Applications to Pasture.
- Project 3030: Increasing profit by 30% through consuming 30% more home-grown forage.
- Project 3030: Can we achieve 12.5 tonnes DM/ha consumed using integrated pasture and crop systems?
- Project 3030: Maximising Summer Forage Production and Nutritive Value.
- Project 3030: Using Cereal Crops to Increase DM Production.
- Project 3030: Publications and Media Stories.
1. Long Term Sustainability of Dairy Second Pond Applications to Pasture
This project aims to quantify the impact of dairy effluent application on soil physical and chemical parameters and also the effect on nutrient run off and leaching. The development of a greater understanding of the impact of dairy effluent on these parameters will assist in reducing the quantities of nutrients entering waterways from dairy farms.
This study commenced in late spring 2003 and is continuing until June 2006. Over each summer second pond dairy effluent was applied to hydraulically isolated perennial ryegrass based pasture plots by spray irrigation. Each plot received one of four application rates, (0, 10, 200 and 400 kg N/ha respectively from the effluent). Plots were set up so that surface run-off was measured using tipping bucket meters and water samples collected by sample splitters. Water moving down the profile was also sampled by piezometers at 0.9 m and at the A-B soil horizon interface.
Effluent applications resulted in substantial increases in the pasture DM yield over the following year. For the 2004 calendar year, grazing cows consumed a total of 13.0, 8.5, 7.8 and 5.8 t DM/ha from the 400, 200, 100 and 0 treatments respectively. Virtually all of the increased pasture accumulation with effluent addition occurred over a relatively short period during the summer and autumn period. Changes in herbage nutritive value especially large increases in CP content also occurred.
The application of effluent had a marked effect on the chemical composition of the soil. The additions of salts in the effluent increased the soil salinity in the autumn to levels where reductions in plant growth were likely. By the following spring however, surface soil salinity levels had returned to safe levels due to leaching over the winter period. Deep soil coring during the following spring indicated that some of this salt had moved into and accumulated in the top section of the soil B horizon. The greatest effect of effluent application on soil nutrient content was on potassium levels where by autumn 2005, the available potassium level for the 400 treatment had risen to 680 mg/L, compared to 160 mg/L for the 0 treatment.
A total of 13 surface runoff events occurred during the winter-early spring of 2004. Total losses of both P and N in surface runoff were quite low in the 0, 100 and 200 treatments being in the range of 670 – 790 g N/ha and 63 – 75 g P/ha. For the 400 treatment however, losses increased considerably with 2360 g N/ha and 283 g P/ha occurred with a high proportion of this P and N being in the dissolved form. Nutrient loss through leaching down the soil profile does not appear to be a significant risk on this particular soil type.
This work will continue through the coming summer and finish in June 2006. Graeme Ward and Joe Jacobs, of DPI Warrnambool have managed the project on behalf of WestVic Dairy, Dairy Australia and Department of Primary Industries.
2. Project 3030: Increasing profit by 30% through consuming 30% more home-grown forage.
Project 3030 is a new research and extension program funded by Dairy Australia, WestVic Dairy, GippsDairy, Murray Dairy, DPI Victoria, University of Melbourne, and Pacific Seeds Ltd. Theaim of the program is to develop systems for achieving 30% higher consumption of home-grown forage on non-irrigated dairy farms in Victoria which result in 30% higher profit: hence the name 3030, which includes both productivity and profit objectives.
The program includes research and extension activities with the specific aims of:
- Supporting farms to achieve an improvement of 30% in return on assets (eg. moving from 6% to 8% ROA, or from 9% to 12% ROA) through the use of more productive forage base systems. This is the goal for extension, and is being tackled through partner farms, regional farm networks, and management information packages involving private consultants, DPI dairy extension team, and service companies.
- Develop forage base systems that achieve an increase of 30% in the tonnage of home-grown feed consumed compared to what can be achieved using the conventional ryegrass system, as an average across the effective farm area. This is the goal for the research activities in the program, being carried out by University of Melbourne and DPI Warrnambool research teams.
The program comprises several parts:
Module 1, Component Research, to generate the new knowledge required to determine the production potential of the most promising feedbase options, and their management requirements.
Module 2, Integration Research , to determine how to successfully incorporate the best options into year-round feeding systems that meet the program goal while sustaining the quality of natural resources on- and off-farm.
Module 3, Modelling , to support the research and extension modules with systems analysis and benchmarking tools.
Module 4, Partner farms , where promising feedbase systems will be implemented in partner farm businesses and their impact on farm production and financial performance will be measured.
Module 5, Regional farm network, where farm businesses will be supported to adopt changes to their forage base on a smaller scale, across the target region.
Module 6, Management information packages where relevant technical information on the agronomy, management, and systems integration requirements of different forage base options will be collated and customized to assist decision-making on-farm.
Several of the activities in the component research and integration research modules are based at DemoDairy. These include trials comparing the production of summer brassicas and winter cereals, and the farmlet trial, which are described on the following pages. Project team: David Chapman, University of Melbourne (project leader); John Kane, University of Melbourne, Warrnambool (extension leader); Joe Jacobs, DPI Warrnambool (component research leader).
3. Project 3030: Can we achieve 12.5 tonnes DM/ha consumed using integrated pasture and crop systems?
The goal for the research part of Project 3030 is to develop forage base systems capable of achieving 30% higher forage consumption than the conventional perennial ryegrass-based system profitably, and with manageable risk. One way the project is tackling this objective is through a farmlet trial, which started at DemoDairy in June 2005. The trial is comparing the productivity of two 36 cow herds, and details of each farmlet are shown in the Table below. The farmlets were stocked with Holstein-Friesian animals selected from the DemoDairy herd, and the project has installed fences, laneways, water and a feeding pad on the farm, and a milk recording and automatic feeding system in the dairy.
The ‘Top 10%’ farmlet is based on perennial ryegrass pastures, stocked at 2.25 milking cows/ha, feeding just over 1 tonne of grain / cow, and aiming for 8.6 t pasture DM consumed/ha. This system is based on the management policies and production levels achieved by farms in the top 10% of the industry in SW Victoria.
The ‘15% RoA farmlet’ includes a proportion of the farm in double crop (winter cereal followed by summer brassica), summer shoulder pasture (tall fescue-based) and annual ryegrass oversowing, plus perennial ryegrass. The target in this farmlet is to achieve 12.5 t DM / ha of home grown forage consumed while feeding cows to reach nearly 500 kg milk solids per cow. Our projection is that this system is capable of achieving financial performance of 15% return on assets (RoA) on commercial farms in the region.
The farmlet trial should provide answers to many questions within the next 12 months, and will continue for at least 4 full lactations.
|
Top 10%
|
15% RoA |
Farmlet physical details Effective milking area, ha Area in ryegrass base pasture, ha (% of total farm in brackets) Area in ryegrass pasture oversown each year, ha (% of total farm) Area in summer shoulder pasture, ha (% of total farm) Area in double crop, ha (% of total farm) Milking cow numbers Stocking rate (cows/ha effective milking area) % effective area drained |
16
16 (100)
0 (0) 0 (0) 0 (0) 36 2.25 20 |
12.5
3.54 (28.4)
3.54 (28.4) 3.54 (28.4) 1.88 (15.0) 36 2.90 40 |
Projected harvest rates – home grown feed Total pasture consumed (t DM/ha, including pasture silage) Total summer crop consumed (t DM/ha – crop area only) Total cereal silage consumed (t DM/ha – crop area only) Total DM consumption (t/ha – whole farm area)
|
8.6 0 0 8.6 |
8.8 12.0 11.9 12.4 |
Projected feed consumed, kg DM/cow Pasture Concentrate Total Pasture and pasture silage as % total consumed Home-grown forage as % total consumed Concentrate as % total consumed |
3,420 1,180 5,930 64.4 64.4 19.9 |
2,930 1,450 6,210 48.6 68.3 23.3 |
Projected milk production Milk yield, l/cow Milk solids, kg/cow Milk solids, kg/ha |
6,070 449 1,000 |
6,820 499 1,450 |
Project team: Jay Tharmaraj, Julian Hill, David Chapman, Bob Grendon, Richard Widows (all University of Melbourne) and Joe Jacobs, DIP Warrnambool.
4. Project 3030: Using Cereal Crops to Increase DM Production
During autumn 2006, a number of cereal crop trials have been established. These are focussing upon the effect of grazing strategies on cereal DM yields and the use of applied N for improving DM yields and the nutritive value of such crops.
The aims of these studies are:
- Determine the DM yield potential of a range of cereal crop species under different growing /harvest strategies
- Determine the nutritive characteristics of a range of cereal crop species under different growing /harvest strategies
- Determine the DM yield potential of a range of cereal crop species grown under differing N application rates and regimes
- Determine the nutritive characteristics of a range of cereal crop species under differing N application rates and regimes
- Development of management strategies to maximise DM yield of cereal crops grown in the high rainfall dairying regions of Victoria
These studies will be completed in late spring 2005 and will be continued next autumn to spring. In addition new studies will be implemented that will focus on harvest strategies to improve silage quality of cereal crops. A key feature of this work will be to focus on integrating cereal crops into double cropping systems with summer forage crops.
There are several investors in this project including WestVic Dairy, Dairy Australia, GippsDairy, Murray Dairy, Department of Primary Industries and University of Melbourne. The project is being coordinated by Dr. Joe Jacobs from DPI in Warrnambool.
5. Project 3030: Maximising Summer Forage Production and Nutritive Value
Given the general inability of perennial ryegrass to provide adequate DM yield throughout the summer under dryland conditions in southern Australia, the use of forage summer crops will remain a component of such systems provided they remain cost effective in relation to purchased feeds. The aim of these current studies is to build upon the existing information in terms of investigating the potential of a range of summer crops to respond to applications of N fertiliser, dairy effluent either alone or in combination.
This work commenced in spring 2004 and will continue until late summer 2007. To date, two studies have been undertaken that have investigated the potential of dairy effluent on regrowth forages and also the use of N fertiliser on a range of summer forages.
In the effluent trial, four regrowth crops (Hunter, Winfred, Chicory and Sweet Jumbo) combined with four effluent rates (0, 40, 80 and 100 mm) were investigated. All crops responded to application of dairy effluent in terms of increased DM production and improvements in CP content. The degree of response varied, with both brassica crops producing highest DM yields. Increasing the rate of effluent application increased crop DM yields for all species. Given the increases in DM yield with all crops, application of effluent provides an opportunity to increase the amount of ME produced per ha for all crops, with both brassica species producing the highest ME yields (GJ/ha).
In the second trial six summer crops (Hunter, Winfred, turnips, millet, Sweet Jumbo and millet/Winfred mix) were compared under a range of N treatments (0, 40, 80, 120, 160, 200 kg N/ha). For the regrowth crops (all crops except turnips), there was an increase in DM yield at rates of 80 kg N/ha or higher with millet and Winfred producing highest DM yields. For turnips, DM yield was unaffected by N application, although the leaf:root ratio increased with increasing N application. All regrowth crops had higher CP content when N was applied, although the response varied between crops. Turnip CP content increased in both the leaf and root components with N application.
These studies will continue this summer and a further study which combines both effluent and fertiliser N will commence. Joe Jacobs, DPI Warrnambool.
6. Project 3030: Publications and Media Stories
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